


What is Taken

by squireofgeekdom



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Trek Fusion, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, RhodeyTony November Bash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-21
Packaged: 2019-02-05 00:04:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 881
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12782547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/squireofgeekdom/pseuds/squireofgeekdom
Summary: After rescuing Tony from the Borg, both Rhodey and Tony have to deal with the consequences of what has been left behind, and what has been taken.





	What is Taken

**Author's Note:**

> General warnings for the Borg, and the consequences of having been turned into a Borg drone. (Read: nonconsensual body modification and being forced into a hive mind, general trauma at near-death experiences.)

Tony Stark looks in the mirror. 

The lights from the implant around his left eye blink back at him,

He unzips his uniform top, pulls it off. Looks at the implant running along his forearm to his right wrist and hand, the lights glowing from the back of his left shoulder.

And the single round light glowing from his chest.

It was better than it had been. Dr. Cho, miracle worker of a CMO that she was, had managed to strip almost all of the Borg implants that had been left in him. These, deemed too heavily integrated to remove, were still much-streamlined from the clunky, wire-ridden exteriors that had covered them before.

Tony hates them. 

“Tony?” 

He looks around at Rhodey’s voice, as he enters their shared bathroom. 

“Are you - oh.”

Tony tries to smile, but Rhodey isn’t buying it. He wraps his arms around Tony and presses a kiss to the back of his neck, right above the implant on his shoulder. 

“Come on. Stop staring at them. Come to bed.”

“I hate them.” He mutters.

“I -” Rhodey starts, and even though he’s still standing behind Tony, Tony can see his face in the mirror, see his pained expression. “I know. But they won’t go away by staring at them, c’mon, Tones, come to bed.”

“You - I - how -” He wriggles out of Rhodey’s grip and turns around to face him, “How can you possibly be so - with  _ this - _ ” He waves his hands up and down frantically to indicate the implants, “-  _ in _ me?”

Rhodey looks at him, clearly thinking. Then, “I don’t like them.” He says honestly, knowing Tony won’t believe a lie. Tony’s face falls, just slightly, unsurprised, resigned. It’s an expression he’s familiar with. “I don’t like them” he continues, “because they remind me that you were hurt, that I failed you.”

“Rhodey -”

He pulls Tony into a hug. “I almost lost you,” He says quietly. 

“I -” Tony says, leaning into his shoulder. “I thought you were dead. Before they put me under - before they - I thought you - the whole ship - I thought -” He’s shaking slightly. 

“We’re safe,” Rhodey says, partly to Tony, partly to himself. “We’re safe,” He repeats, resting a hand in Tony’s hair. “And if you think having some cyborg parts in you changes anything about how I feel, you’re wrong.”

“I hate them,” Tony says, and Rhodey isn’t sure if he means the implants or the Borg, or both. “They - they’re  _ there  _ \- and they - they  _ took  _ something from me. With them. They ‘added my biological and technological distinctiveness to their own’. They took that from me.” He ducks his head into Rhodey’s shoulder. “Next time it’ll be my own weapons designs trained on us.” He says, bitterness seeping from his voice. 

“Tony -” he starts, “They didn’t  _ take  _ anything from you. Everything - all of you is still right here,” He says, tightening his hug around Tony, running his fingers through Tony’s hair, pressing down to the scalp to hold him closer. Reassuring himself that yes, Tony  _ is  _ still here. “Yeah, maybe they know some stuff you know. But you didn’t lose anything. You’re still you.”

“How would I - how can I - I don’t know what I lost.” He looks up at Rhodey, “I don’t - I don’t feel the same. How - how do I know if that’s something - how do I know they didn’t -”

“Trust me,” Rhodey says simply. “You’re still you.”

“How do you - how can you possibly -”

“Because when Dr. Cho woke you up in the medbay you asked the replicator to make you a cheeseburger.” Rhodey says, smiling, tongue in cheek. He continues, “Tony, I know you better than anyone on this ship. Yeah, of course you feel different. You’re going to, after something like this. I’d be more worried if you said you felt the same. But that doesn’t mean anything was taken away.”

“I still hate them,” Tony mumbles.

“I know.” Rhodey says. He looks at Tony. “So take something back. They shoved their tech in you, you think they had  _ any  _ idea who they were handing it to? You think they had any idea what you were  _ taking  _ from them?” He says, and Tony looks up at him, startled. “They copied some stuff out of your head, sure, but you got this -” He taps Tony’s chest, “Out of  _ them.  _ You telling me that  _ Tony Stark  _ can’t figure out how this works? That next week you aren’t going to know it better than it’s own makers? That you’re not going to have found all it’s weaknesses and built it better?” Tony smiles a little at that. “They got some of our intel. But we got some of theirs, and between the two of us and a Borg hive mind, I know who I’m betting on.”

“Yeah?” Tony asks, with a little smile. 

“I got you back, didn’t I?” Rhodey says. He taps Tony’s chest again. “It’s yours now. You just have to make it that way.”

“So,” Tony says, leaning into him,  “I’m your secret weapon, huh?”

“You’ve always been my secret weapon.” Rhodey says, pressing a kiss to the top of Tony’s head. “But right now I’d really like my secret weapon to come to bed.”

Tony smiles. “I think I can do that.” He says, and takes Rhodey’s hand. 


End file.
